The present invention relates generally to information networks such as the Internet, an Intranet, or the like and more specifically to a site home navigation control for providing standardized within-site navigation to the site home page of a network site from site pages within the network site.
Internet search engines provide users with exhaustive lists of links to content pages based on search string criteria entered by the user. The user may then select among the links, which contain uniform resource locators (URLs) for the content pages, to navigate to a particular site page in order to view the content provided by that page. Often, a selected link will jump the user to a subordinate site page of a given site instead of the site home page of that site. Consequently, the content provided by the subordinate site page may be presented out of context with other information furnished by the site. In such cases, it may be desirable to navigate directly from the subordinate page to the site home in order to gain additional contextual information about the overall site.
Presently, the ability of users to navigate to the site home of a network site from a site page within the network site is dictated exclusively by the author of the network site. However, the authors of many sites do not include any type of xe2x80x9chomexe2x80x9d navigation mechanism for allowing navigation directly to the site home from pages within the site. Similarly, the authors of other sites may only include xe2x80x9chomexe2x80x9d navigation aids that allow navigation from certain pages within the site. Further, when authors do provide some type of xe2x80x9cHomexe2x80x9d navigation aid, the implementation of such navigation aids varies greatly from site to site since there is currently no standard for their implementation. For instance, since implementation of the navigation aid is dependent on the author of the site, selection of the site home navigation aid may provide unexpected results, jumping the user to site pages other than the desired site home, and possibly causing the user to become lost within the network site. Further, authors may employ different physical mechanisms to provide navigation to the site home. An author may, for example, utilize hypertext links embedded within the site pages, or may employ graphics such as icons or buttons. Similarly, authors often vary the physical location where the site home navigation mechanism is displayed.
The lack of consistency as to whether a site home navigation aid is provided, where the aid is provided, the results provided by its selection and its implementation in the page is confusing to users. Consequently, it would be advantageous to provide a site home navigation control for providing within-site navigation to the site home of sites in an information network such as the Internet, an Intranet, or the like from site pages within the network site which would not be dependent on authors of the network site for its implementation. Preferably, the site home navigation control would be implemented within the user""s network browser to provide a consistent, standardized user interface.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method for implementing a site home navigation control capable of locating and navigating to the site home of a network site in an information network such as the Internet, an Intranet, or the like from site pages within the network site. Preferably, the site home navigation control is implemented within the user""s network browser to provide a consistent, standardized user interface to users.
In an exemplary embodiment, the method includes the steps of receiving a request to navigate from a site page to the site home of the network site, determining a site home for the network site, and when a site home is found for the network site, navigating to the site home in response to the received request so information provided by the site home may be communicated to a user. Alternately, when a site home is not found for the network site, the method may further comprise the step of communicating to the user that the site home was not found. The method may be implemented as a program of instructions storable on a medium readable by an information handling system for causing the information handling system to perform the steps of the method.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the general description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.